Historical and statistical soccer stories from all over the world, old and a bit older.

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Sunday, February 9, 2014

The tradition of shirt number retirement

Shirt numbers
are mandatory in the English soccer league since 1939, with other countries
following slowly. The tradition of honoring a player by retiring his shirt
number isn’t by far that old. Nonetheless, it is a fast growing business. And it cuts
both ways. For the player it means his longtime serving is appreciated by the
club, for the club it’s a gesture that makes the club likeable at the same time.

Wrong reasons for retirement

It’s such a
positive gesture, that some clubs try using it as a marketing tool. Of course it’s
ridiculous that German club Schalke 04 retired the number 7-shirt in 2012 after
Raul Gonzalez played in it for two years. A year later, the number was
reinstalled, in a way admitting that it was a stupid thing to do anyway. Other
examples of strange early shirt retirements are:

Hernan Medford

- - Costa
Rican club Cartagines honoring Uruguyan forward Claudio Ciccia after just four
seasons at the club;

- - Italian
club Brescia honoring Roberto Baggio, also after just four seasons;

- - Mexican
club Pachuca retiring Hernan Medford’s number 17 after he scored his 100th
goal. During his professional career that is - he only scored 11 times for
Pachuca.

So, it’s better
to look at players who really deserve the honor of having their shirt number
retired. Not because they passed away, or because they had physical problems
that forced them into an early retirement. Both good reasons I admit, but I’ll just
stick with players who spent their whole career at one club and those clubs
being grateful for that. While waiting for Ryan Giggs to retire (24 seasons and
counting...) and Manchester United doing the right thing, below is a countdown of the seven
players worldwide that spent twenty or more seasons at one club and saw their
shirt number put on hold.

20 seasons: Juan Carlos Plata (Guatemala – CSD
Municipal)

One of the
true legends of Guatemalan soccer, forward Juan Carlos Plata was born January
1, 1971. He made his debut for CSD Municipal at the start of the 1990-91
season, 19 years old. He scored a modest eight goals that season, but Plata soon
developed into a profilic goal scorer. Over the years, Juan Carlos Plata has
scored 303 league-goals for Municipal. He was the league’s top scorer only
twice, but managed to score at least 15 goals in thirteen different seasons.
Plata also played 87 times for the national team, scoring 35 goals. After
twenty seasons at the club, Plata was given a farewell match, after which it
was announced that his shirtnumber 15 would be retired.

20 seasons: Marcos (Brazil – Palmeiras)

Surprisingly,
Marcos is the only goalkeeper in this list. Marcos Roberto Silveira Reis was
born August 4, 1973. He made his first appearance for Palmeiras in 1992, but
had to sit on the bench for seven years until first choice Velloso got injured -
and later was transferred to Atletico Mineiro. Marcos immediately made an impact
that year and made his debut for the Brazilian national team late 1999.
Highlight of his career was being part of the World Cup 2002, playing all
matches ánd winning the World Cup. At club level Marcos won the Copa
Libertadores in 1999 – and was crowned best goalkeeper of the tournament. He
retired early 2012, admitting that his age (38 at the time) and his many
injuries indicated he should quit the game. Although not playing much in his
first seven seasons, Marcos still managed to compete in 532 matches for
Palmeiras. For that, Palmeiras retired the number 12-shirt. Marcos first
started out as a reserve goalie and stayed loyal to that number.

20 seasons: Leonel Hernandez (Costa Rica – CS Cartagines)

Leonel
Hernandez made his debut for CS Cartagines, the oldest soccer club in Costa
Rica, in 1960. Born October 3, 1943 he is just 17 years old. CS Cartagines is a
big club, but they only managed to win the championship three times in the
early days (1923, 1936 and 1940). Hernandez never had that pleasure. Winger Hernandez
is known for his skills, they called him the ‘billiard player’ for his accurate
passing. He was also a great goal scorer. For example, he scored 22 times in
1969 (Roy Saenz from LD Alajuelense topped that with 24 goals) and he did win
the Golden Boot in 1973, scoring 18 goals. Of course, by playing such a long
period of time, Hernandez is also up there with the best goal scorers of all
time. With his 164 league goals he’s CS Cartagines record holder. Hernandez was
a member of the national team from 1963 until 1972, earning 35 caps and scoring
11 goals. In 1979 he decides it’s time to step down, 36 years old. His number
11 is retired ever since.

20 seasons: Franco Baresi (Italy – AC Milan)

What more
is there to say about world famous Franco Baresi? The elegant Italian defender
was part of AC Milan from 1977 until 1997, experiencing everything from scandals
and relegation to six championships and three European Cups. Starting with the
bad experience, AC Milan and Lazio Roma were involved in a gambling scandal and
relegated to the Serie B. It took AC Milan and Franco Baresi three years (first
promotion, then relegation, then promotion again) to get back on their feet. During
the late eighties, early nineties Paolo Maldini and Franco Baresi were the only
Italian stars alongside the Dutch supertrio of Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard
and Ruud Gullit. Baresi also was present at four different World Cups, 1982
through 1994, sitting on the bench in 1982 and missing one of the penalties in
the 1994 Final. It was no surprise that, when Baresi hung up his boots after a disappointing
1996-97 season, 37 years old, AC Milan also retired his shirt number 6.

21 seasons: Leung Sui-wing (Hong Kong – Happy
Valley)

Leung Sui-wing as a coach

Not a big
name even in Asian soccer, but Hong Kong’s Leung Sui-wing has a great soccer
career to show for. He started playing professionally at Happy Valley in 1976, at
the age of 18 years. In the next 21 seasons, he was runner up in the league
seven times. He managed only one
championship win, in 1988-89. Perhaps Sui-wing’s biggest achievement was not in
the Happy Valley-shirt, but during one of the 46 times he represented Hong Kong.
On May 19, 1985 he was captain of the team that played against big rival China,
during the World Cup qualification campaign for Mexico 1986. Hong Kong had
drawn 0-0 at home, but managed to surprise the Chinese, winning 1-2 in Beijing.
It got Hong Kong through to the second round, in which they lost against Japan.
On a personal level, being voted Hong Kong’s Best Player in 1983 and 1985 was
also a big honor. When Sui-wing ended his career in 1997, his shirt number 2
was pulled out of the competition by the club.

23 seasons: Noel Bailie (Northern Ireland –
Linfield FC)

Just like
Leung Sui-wing, Noel Bailie played as a sweeper, although he wore the number
11-shirt. Bailie was born in Belfast on February 23, 1971. He was picked up by
Linfield FC at the age of 15, and made his debut in the first team on March 30,
1989. During the next 23 seasons, Bailie won no les then 34 trophies, among them
10 league championships and seven FA Cups. Bailie never was an outstanding
player – although he made a few appearances in Under 23 and Under-21 games for
Northern Ireland – but he was the kind of player you miss when he’s not
playing. Linfields defense was definitely less solid during those matches.
Luckily, those days were few, as Bailie played a grand total of 1,013 matches
in the blue and white of Linfield FC during those 23 seasons. His last match
was against Lisburn Distillery and got Linfield their 50th league
championship.

24 seasons: Paolo Maldini (Italy – AC Milan)

No family probably
has played more seasons for one club as the Maldini family did for AC Milan.
Father Cesare Maldini wore the red and black shirt (with number 3) for twelve
seasons (1954-55 until 1965-1966), although he did started out with Triestina
(two years) and ended his career at AC
Torino (one season). His son Paolo did even better than that. Maldini junior
made his debut on January 20, 1985, only 16 years old. It took him until the
start of the next season to make his second appearance, but he was a regular
from that moment on. The numbers he accumulated over 25 years of professional
soccer are very impressive: 25 seasons in Serie A (7 times league champion),
126 international caps (74 times as captain), one World Cup Final in 1994, 8 European
Champions League Finals (winning five), 647 matches in Serie A. So, if Maldini
didn’t deserve to get number 3 retired from AC Milan’s first team, nobody ever
again would. But of course, AC Milan did the right thing. For the record, Maldini’s
number 3 might not be retired forever. He and AC Milan are okay with one exception:
it would be okay for one of Paolo’s sons, Christian or Daniel, to wear that
famous number again. If they ever make it into AC Milan’s first team. Which is
not impossible as both youngsters are members of the youth academy. Christian
(17) was loaned to Brecia just this January, trying to get into the first team
at the Serie B-club.